LAST SEAT ON THE BUS: It's late, tomorrow comes early

Jabili Rao, left, and husband Raj Rao of Carmel, have been all smiles all day long from their seats on the bus directly in front of me. When the bus got cold at one point, she sported the souvenir stocking cap, shown here.

It's after 11 p.m. We pulled into our Bethesda, Maryland hotel an hour or so ago. I just transmitted some photos and a story for my newspaper company's print and website products. I am beat but didn't want to sign off for the night before a word with you folks who tell me you are watching and waiting!

Everything went well today getting here and throughout Bus 1 (mine) there was excited chatter, laughter and banter. Tomorrow we hit the ground running. When you do something such as this, you have to go with the flow and the flow will find me up at 4:15 a.m. to join those who want to hit the Metro early and meet up with the national Fox News Channel for interviews around 6:30 a.m. This group is on the Fox radar as reporters met us at the bus at the Steve Alford Inn this morning in New Castle as we boarded.

It's completely optional, but of the 110 on this tour, about 20 are going for it in the morning. When else will any of us get the chance to be interviewed on national TV with the Washington, D.C. mall as the backdrop? So I'll be there to see what happens and get some photos. I expect to post a couple of times on The Courier-Times Facebook page tomorrow..

After our 15 minutes of fame (well, sort of), then we're off sightseeing, then folks are going several different directions. I'll return here mid-afternoon to change clothes into my sparkly top and $43 ball ensemble and go get my credential. Then I'll stick around until the guests arrive. We are expecting Vice President Elect Pence tomorrow night at the Indiana ball.

These things are fluid. We'll see what happens and what tomorrow brings. Very soon it will be tomorrow. I'd best try for some shut eye. Four-fifteen comes early by any measure.